Jurgen Klopp Defends Liverpool Decision Not to Spend 'Completely Crazy Money' in January

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has insisted the Reds were right not to dip into the transfer market in January in an attempt to try and replace Philippe Coutinho, describing the money it would take to complete more business as ‘completely crazy’.

Liverpool moved early in the market to sign Virgil van Dijk for £75m, a new world record fee for a defender, but were then reluctant to spend further cash after selling Coutinho to Barcelona for a figure rising to £142m – receiving over £100m in guaranteed cash.

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Responding to criticism for not spending when fans believed the Brazilian should have been immediately replaced with a marquee arrival – Thomas Lemar was linked again for £90m – Klopp claimed people have been taking too straightforward a view of the situation.

“Unfortunately our business is only that easy from the outside. You miss a player for a week and you think ‘okay, we need another player’,” the German is quoted as saying by the Liverpool Echo.

“Yes, we could have done something. But we need really the right thing. The right thing now, you don’t get. The 100% right thing, only for completely crazy money that really makes no sense. I’m not even sure that would work. And in the summer it looks different.”

For Klopp, any business done in January had to be right, especially with inflated prices.

“That’s how it is. To do something just to have any solution that makes no real sense, to be honest. People obviously ask ‘bring him in’ because someone is injured and you need somebody else, but then [player] is coming [back] and you weaken both or the third one, it makes no sense,” he said.

Hard as it may be, he added, “You really need to stay cool. It’s more difficult when you’ve lost two games (Swansea and West Brom) but you need to be serious still.”